Archive for January 17th, 2012

(CNS): The Windsor Park neighbourhoodofficer Police Constable Cardiff Robinson engaged in a little bit of preventative policing recently with a sporting neighbourhood initiative. The community officer got together with Crime Stoppers to provide a number of branded footballs and basketballs for the young people in the community. “Young people in Windsor Park are no different from young people anywhere else in the world – they are full of energy,”he said. “The challenge for us, and the wider community, is to ensure that the energy is channelled productively and that they don’t become tempted to get involved in anti-social behaviour or crime.”

The officer who has been in the community for about a year explained the young people were short of this type of equipment.\\

“That’s why I approached Crime stoppers to ask if they could support a community sporting initiative and supply some much-needed equipment. We hope that the equipment provided will engender some team spirit in Windsor Park, and ultimately contribute to the social development of the neighbourhood,” PC Robinson added.
The handover of the equipment took in George Town last Thursday. The cost of the equipment was CI$400 and KPMG made the donation that allowed crimestoppers to acquire the sports equipment for programmes such as this.

Malcolm Ellis, Chairman of Cayman Crime Stoppers, said: “The Cayman Crime Stoppers board is very happy to support this initiative to provide young people with a positive outlet for their energy, and to see our police officers acting as role models at a community level. The equipment is branded with the Crime Stoppers logo and the 800-TIPS hotline and so provides another way for us to remind everyone involved about our programme and how to provide anonymous tips.”

(CNS Business): A key difference between the most recent offshore voluntary disclosure programme announced by the US Internal Revenue Service and previous programmes is that it will run indefinitely, according to David Conen of KPMG (Cayman Islands). Confirming that he has had clients who have made use of the previous programmes, Conen told CNS Business that the latest programme will lead into the implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in two years’ time, when the US will be requiring considerably more reporting and compliance for offshore accounts. He said people were realising now that they should be on the right side of the US authorities, especially while reduced penalties are in place under the current voluntary disclosure programme. Read more on CNS Business

(CNS): An international survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers has revealed that fraud continues to be a persistent threat in the public sector the world over with asset misappropriation, accounting fraud and bribery and corruption the top three frauds. The report said that a large number of frauds are committed by employees that organisations trust and have access to significant amounts of data. It also found a rise in procurement frauds in the last twelve months. The survey shows that despite being the most likely perpetrators of fraud, public sector workers are less likely to be dismissed over fraudulent acts than other sectors.

PwC said it was easy for individuals to simply transfer departments, leaving them free to commit their crimes over and over again.

“If public sector organisations are to adopt a zero tolerance approach to economic crime, they need to consider seriously the actions taken against fraudulent behaviour," the consultants warned in the report entitled, Fighting fraud in government.

During the survey the respondents from 36 different jurisdictions were asked ‘core’ questions on economic crime. Of the government and public sector respondents, 46% reported experiencing one or more incidents of economic crime in the last year, up by more than 10% on the results of the last survey conducted on the subject by PwC in 2009 and well above the average of 34% across the private sector.

“As the public service market becomes more open and suppliers more diverse with more voluntary and private sector organisations become involved in delivering public services, procurement departments will also face a whole raft of new challenges to ensure that the quality and cost-efficiency of the services being delivered are not compromised,” the report’s authors stated.

PwC warned that supplier frauds still occur because prevention is often reliant on the vigilance of employees and traditional detective measures could easily miss fraud that is hidden within millions of transactions and thousands of suppliers.

“Most procurement frauds are conducted over a period of several years and it can be hard for organisations to recoup any losses. It is, however, an area where new technologies, and, in particular, advanced data analytics, can bring real benefits in detecting fraud and identifying clusters of unusual transactions,” the report stated.

The survey also revealed a marked increase in cyber-crime. In previous global economic crime surveys, PwC said respondents reported very low levels of this type of crime and results were combined ‘other types of fraud’ in the surveys. With the increasing concerns around cyber threats, however, in this year’s report cyber-crime was rated as a separate category of fraud with 14% of respondents in the public sector reporting having experienced a cybercrime attack in the past 12 months.

The consultants warned that governments cannot ignore the growing risk, not least because of the personal and confidential data held that made them prime targets for attack.

(CIFA): The Digicel Cup semi- finals’ first leg brought to the crowd at The Annex two very competitive games which awarded wins to the best positioned teams in the Cayman Premier League. In the first match, Elite suffered a goal in the 21st minute but with a quick recover just 8 minutes after, equalized in a penalty kick taken by Jairo Sanchez. The second half showed the same balance from the first 45 minutes but it was Elite which scored the winning goal on the 76th minute by Alex Belcher. The second match was similar in challenge and excitement as the first game; Roma took the advantage in the 27th minutes with a free-kick from Narval Buchanan.

Bodden Town never gave up and the continuous effort got paid off in the dying minutes when Theron Wood scored at the 86th minute and Wesley Robinson scored the winning goal at the additional time for Bodden Town fan’s big celebration.

The second leg of semifinal matches will be on 5 February 2012 at the Annex. Roma UFC will play Bodden Town FC at 5:00pm and Elite SC will play Scholars Int’l at 7:00pm.

(CNS): Claims made by the environment minister, Mark Scotland, that relocating the landfill to Bodden Town would not impact traffic in the district do not appear to be based on research or proper analysis. A freedom of information request made to the NRA by local activists campaigning against the move has revealed that no reports, studies or assessments of traffic levels were the dump to be moved have been undertaken. The Coalition to Keep Bodden Town Dump Free said it has also submitted an FOI request to the public works ministry but that also revealed that there were no reports, studies, or research that could justify the move. As a result, the coalition said it questions the minister’s assertions about the limited impact on their district.

Scotland, who is Bodden Town’s representative as well as being a Cabinet minister, has stated publicly that moving the dump would have little impact on the traffic levels of Cayman’s original capital. However, Vincent Frederick, one of the leaders of the coalition, says the lack of research or assessment seriously undermines that claim.

“Where did Mr Scotland come up with his estimate of ‘only 200 truckloads’ of garbage' – so 400 more trucks through Bodden Town, every day, when you count the return trip? On what did he base this rather frivolous assertion that no new roads would be required?” the activist asked.

Fredrick said the coalition asked the NRA for all studies, reports, correspondence, emails, memorandums relating to traffic levels through Bodden Town as a result of the proposed landfill in Midland Acres and any requirement of additional roads. The NRA responded: “Unfortunately, this Authority does not have any record of studies, reports, correspondence, emails, or memorandum relating to new landfill in Midland Acres.”

Similarly requests made to made to the Ministry of District Administration, Works, Lands and Agriculture (DAWLA) for “studies, reports, correspondence, emails, memorandums” relating to the selection of a suitable alternative location for the George Town landfill and the selection of Bodden Town also came up blank.

The ministry said: “…this Ministry holds no records…as you have requested.” In December the Department of Environmental Health also confirmed there had been no studies or reports concerning an alternative site for the GT landfill as most of the studies conducted focused on better waste management practices at George Town.

Alain Beiner, another of the coalition members spearheading the campaign said the activists were concerned by the persistent absence of any response to the question of who decided on Bodden Town, how, where and when?

The coalition stated that Mark Scotland has indicated that a private study was conducted sometime in the 1990s which found that Bodden Town, while not a first choice for re-siting the landfill, was best for a waste-management facility in regard to wildlife and wetlands.

However, Biener doubted the veracity of the unidentified study which does not appear to have been seen by any of the staff in the relevant government departments or by the public and which the minister also indicated does not identify Bodden Town as the best location.

Gregg Anderson, another Coalition leader, said the people needed to know who commissioned this study and who conducted it. If it is the basis of government’s decision to relocate the dump to Bodden Town, he queried why it wasn’t filed with DEH or DAWLA so that they could provide the people with a copy.

“Choosing Midland Acres as the best choice in ‘regards to wetlands’ directly contradicts last year’s opinion of the Central Tenders Committee’s technical team, who rejected moving the dump there because of concerns about the potential environmental impact of locating a new dump in the central wetlands area,” he added.

The Coalition said that they had asked the minister for several pieces of information including a copy of that study but so far, other than an acknowledgement for the request, the coalition has not received any information from their elected representative and government minister.

Anderson said the lack of openness and consultation as well as the reluctance of their representatives to provide answers is fuelling the fears of Bodden Towners about the proposed landfill relocation as well as a distrust of their MLAs.

The Coalition has now begun a door-to-door campaign among residents in the district to inform them of their concerns and question how people feel about the proposal. The campaign began in Midland Acres and will continue throughout the district. A bulk distribution of the Coalition’s information flyer was also launched, beginning with the Bodden Town and the Savannah post offices.

Coalition leaders have said that a series of radio spots is also planned to spell out the position of the coalition and why they are concerned.

“We represent the interests of the population,” said Frederick. “We’re opposed to the dump being relocated to our district, and we call on government to solve the problem of Mount Trashmore where it is, without contaminating a new site. Dart wants the dump ‘out of its backyard’ and dumped it into ours — with no concern for the consequences for our environment, our economy, our well-being, or for our future. We’ll fight this senseless plan, and we intend to win, ” he added.

The plan to move the landfill to Bodden Town is part of the proposed ForCayman Alliance, which is an investment partnership between the islands’ largest developer, the Dart Group, and the government that includes a number ofland swaps to facilitate more development and investment. Dart has proposed swapping the crown land at the current landfill site in George Town for land it owns in Midland Acres and to finance the creation of what it has said would be a new modern waste management park.

Dart proposes to then finance the capping and remediation of the existing dump, which is located close to its main investment project Camana Bay, then eventually, when safe to do so, it says it would create a recreational area at the site.

(Caribbean Journal): The 2011 general election in Jamaica saw the use of traditional and social media in ways never before experienced on that island. This was the first such election in that country since the coming of age of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, threeof the most popular social networks. The former Prime Minister, Andrew Holness went as far as to indicate that the Jamaica Labour Party would be relying less on traditional media and more on social media to communicate their messages to the people, so that, as he said, “the people can get the message unfiltered, untwisted … the truth.'